The sources said bin Salman is ready to allow an individual to bid on the team, or throw the country's huge resources behind a takeover to buy it outright.

They were published shortly after a report in the Washington Post - for whom Mr Khashoggi worked - cited United States government officials who believed that audio recordings proved he had been murdered while visiting the Saudi embassy.

So far it still remains unclear how Trump would "punish" the kingdom economically over the journalist's disappearance, but major figures in the US Congress, such as Florida Senator Marco Rubio, have suggested halting arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi media on Monday echoed the kingdom's hard-line threat of retaliation for any sanctions over the disappearance and alleged death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, as demands grew for boycotts of the same global brands once courted by the kingdom.

Turkish and Saudi authorities have now been told to launch a "credible investigation" into Mr Khashoggi's disappearance. "The Saudi government-controlled media is stressing that the disappearance of Khashoggi is a conspiracy manufactured by Qatar", Meyer explains.

"I think one of the strong things that we can do is not only stop military sales, not only put sanctions on Saudi Arabia, but most importantly, get out of this bad, awful war in Yemen led by the Saudis", Sen. The kingdom has called such allegations "baseless" but has not offered any evidence Khashoggi ever left the consulate.

Saudi Arabia has responded to Western statements by saying it would retaliate against any pressure or economic sanctions "with greater action", and Arab allies rallied to support it, setting up a potential showdown between the world's top oil exporter and its main Western allies.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said she told her Saudi counterpart Monday that she wants to see a "thorough and transparent" investigation into Khashoggi's fate.

Informally called Davos in the Desert, people like former AOL CEO Steve Case and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi have said that they won't be attending this year. Ford Motor Executive Chairman Bill Ford won't attend because of a scheduling conflict, a spokeswoman said. "This is unfortunate; this is something that is making our - my work - and the Center for [Democracy and] Human Rights in Saudi Arabia very hard", he continued.